Teens Getting Tired of Facebook Drama

Move over Facebook drama because teens are heading to Twitter.

Facebook has been dominating social media with over 600 million users for quite some time now… but things appear to be changing. In Vignesh Ramachandran‘s article “Teens Getting Tired of Facebook Drama, Pew Survey Finds”, he discusses the results of a recent study by Pew Research Institute that suggests teens are losing interest in Facebook drama and moving to Twitter.

77% of online teens (ages 12-17) surveyed use Facebook. But while Pew’s findings show that teens view Facebook participation as important for socializing, they have waning enthusiasm for Facebook.

So what’s to blame? Perhaps it’s the increasing number of parents or the overload of teen drama? Some speculate that teens may be less likely to share photos and status updates knowing their parents can see it. Like Facebook, Twitter allows users to share their thoughts and photos but without the parental supervision. The number of teen users leaving Facebook for other social media networks isn’t causing too much concern for Facebook quite yet. However, the plateau of teen usage should be a sign of concern.

These grievances may be why teens seem to be getting more excited about other social networks.

Pew found 24% of online teens use Twitter, an increase from 16% in 2011. While 39% of African-American teens said they use Twitter, only 23% of white teens said the same.

Outside of Twitter and Facebook, teens don’t have as much of an online presence. In 2012, 11% of teen social media users used Instagram, whileTumblr (5%), Google+ (3%) and Pinterest (1%) drew in even fewer teens.

Despite Justin Timberlake’s star power on Myspace, only 7% of surveyed teens use the network, according to the Pew report. And all 7% said they used other social media accounts more frequently than MySpace.

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